A New Culprit in Lyme Disease

Mosquitoes may be receiving all the attention amid the Zika virus epidemic, but they are hardly the only disease vectors to worry about. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have discovered a new species of tick-borne bacteria that causes Lyme disease.

The new species, provisionally named Borrelia mayonii, after the clinic, has been found only in the upper Midwest but may be present elsewhere.

Six patients with the infection were identified by the researchers. The patients had symptoms similar to, but not precisely the same as, those caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, until now the only species known to cause Lyme disease in North America.